Our family units book up quickly! So before you miss the chance to stay in the bush in one of our ensuite (one bathroom for you and one for the kids!) free standing and private family units enquire now – you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Dad wants action, mum wants beach, the kids want something new and there is always one who doesn’t think they want to go on Safari…

Problem?

Not at all!

There is something for everyone on our family Environmental Awareness holiday.

Relax at the soft, clean sandy beach of Kosi Bay – with *amazing* snorkelling and the nice calm, warm waters of the estuary to paddle in (so, whether your children are 4 or 14 there are no tides to worry about!)

Spend an afternoon cruising with the Hippos and Crocs in St Lucia and then visit the croc centre to learn more about the ‘dinosaurs’ of the St Lucia Estuary. For more adventure, family members over 12 years can Kayak on the St Lucia Estuary and see the hippos and crocs at eye-level!

We even cater for the hands-on animal lovers! Stroke a cheetah, cuddle it, or, feed an elephant and even touch its tongue!! Learn about these fascinating creatures, see how they jump and run and learn how they think!

Meet our scaley snake friends and get to hold fluffy the Red-tailed Boa! She is over 2.5m in length now and loves cuddles – don’t worry she is non-venomous, in fact, boas don’t even have fangs!

But there is much much more to do in KZN and Umkhumbi Lodge is perfectly based to see and do as many different things as possible!

For example, I haven’t even mentioned one of the oldest game reserves in South Africa, which is just a 40 minutes drive from us, the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve.

Big 5 safari at Hluhlwe-Imfolozi and a little safari with us as we take you on a night walk through our bush in search of scorpions, spiders, chameleons and bush babies. There are usually lots of glow worms too, to get small imaginations running… so keep your eyes peeled for the ‘fairies’!

There were a lot of tears last night and then again today at the airport. Cries of “I don’t want to leave”, “let me stay and play with the cheetah again!” and “when can I come back” are still ringing in my ears as I write this!

Well, of course you can come back, just contact Tony about volunteering to help with the group next year or if you’d rather, bring your family and do a very similar trip that Anton can set up for you!

Got up quite early and got ready for the over night wilderness trail. Not going to lie, sounded pretty scary, walking through the bush and then camping over night outside with people taking shifts to keep watch, but it was so cool!!!!! So the walk to the camp was quite long… we got a few breaks and a nice long lunch break (while Lottie went to the loo about 5 times!) but our guide, Joe, walked at quite a pace and seemed to have constant energy! But we got to camp early, and saw some hippos in the water near our camp, which was amazing! There were about 5 of them just there, staring at us. It was cool until we realized that we would be camping next to them and they could walk through our camp if they wanted, as could crocs, as could hyenas, as could ANY animal that wanted to, hence the night watch! Without even a sit down, we went straight into Croemalena clearing, which is an alien crop that kills some of the animals if they eat it. We were shown how to use the machetes and then we got to it. Anneka and me enjoyed it slightly too much I think! We proper went for it and got LOADS cleared away! We were pretty happy with it! Then we were finished for the day, I was really hot disgusting from the walk and the clearing… I hadn’t planned to shower, so I didn’t bring a towel or anything, but I went for an open air shower! It was AMAZINGG!!! Lots of hot water and a nice fire outside to keep my clothes warm. So good! Then we sat around the camp fire for a bit while it got dark and then…. it was BBQ time!!!! We had Nyala steaks, Wildebeest sausages, potato salad, beetroot salad and really yummy bread – an AWSOME bbq!! The we toasted marshmallows on the fire, which I’ve never done before! Smelt and tasted soooo good! Then people started going to bed and the night watch started for the first group. Nothing much came through the camp, but our night log became quite inventive, with a family of hippos scaring Beth near the toilet and me, Glyn and Alicia fighting off an alien invasion. The whole thing was a great experience. When else are we going to get the chance to sleep outside in the African bush?!!